Tebbs owner pleads guilty to selling bath salts

The owner of a chain of head shops in Central New York, including Utica and Herkimer, could face up to 20 years in prison after he admitted Wednesday in federal court to selling synthetic drugs known as “bath salts.”

The owner of a chain of head shops in Central New York, including Utica and Herkimer, could face up to 20 years in prison after he admitted Wednesday in federal court to selling synthetic drugs known as “bath salts.”

John Tebbetts III, 33, of Floyd, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to: possessing a controlled substance with the intent to distribute, possessing controlled substance analogues as “bath salts” and engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from unlawful activity, according to prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

During his plea in Syracuse, Tebbetts admitted to owning several Tebbs Head shops in Central New York and Maine, also including two in Syracuse and one in Oneida, prosecutors said. He also admitted using a warehouse in Rome to store these substances.

In addition to prison time, Tebbetts could also face a fine of nearly $5.3 million when he is sentenced on Monday, April 29. He has likewise agreed to forfeit $314,000 in cash, as well as six vehicles including a motor home he bought using more than $157,000 in cash he earned by illegally selling these synthetic drugs.

Through the Tebbs stores, prosecutors said Tebbetts labeled these substances as “Legal Phunk,” “Clear” and “Amped” with the intent to sell them for of human consumption – despite a history of reports last summer that such substances were causing people to act violently, aggressively confront police and overwhelm emergency rooms by overdosing.

“This is a prime example of adult drug dealers luring our youth into dangerous and deadly drug use,” said Drug Enforcement Agency Special Agent in Charge Brian Crowell. “Bath salts are marketed as innocuous to teens who will try this dangerous drug sold in head shops and not sold by the corner drug dealer. However, Tebbetts is a drug dealer, disguised as a business selling bath salts, Spice and K2 over the counter, knowing full well these controlled substances would be ingested by teens and young adults.”

But perhaps because of federal, state and local laws that have since been passed to ban the sale of these substances, authorities say bath salts-related incidents have “dwindled to near zero.” And with Tebbett’s guilty plea now as the first such conviction in the state’s Northern District, prosecutors believe a big part of the problem has been reined in.

“It certainly has shut down, to a large extent, the distribution of bath salts and synthetic marijuana,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan.

This prosecution was the result of an investigation by the DEA in Syracuse, Central New York High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, Homeland Security Investigations, New York State Police, the Oneida County and Onondaga sheriff’s departments, police departments in Syracuse, Auburn, Rome, and Oneida, as well as the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office and the Jefferson County Drug Task Force.